Fire in the Hole
by seriousbiznasty
Summary: Thinking back, that one moment was one that he really regretted. He turned back to look at Dave to see that he already had a match struck and burning. "DAVE, NO! PUT THAT OUT, YOU IDIOT! YOU JUST SPILLED GAS ALL OVER THE FUCKING PLACE!" "Fine, fine. Calm down, sheesh." He threw the match to the ground and was about to step on it, but fire rose up all around him


"Alright, class. The end of the semester is coming up, so I've decided to assign you a project." A chorus of groans sounded through the class, the loudest being from one of the few trolls in class, Karkat Vantas. "Don't get too excited." Mr. Scratch said. "I want you and a partner to get together and do something about the elements in history. Interpret that in any way you want. You'll be getting points on creativity. You get free reign over this project. Do it in whatever format you wish. Since this is the one grade that will make you or brake you this semester," he paused to shoot a glance at Dave, who simply sat with a stoic stare and his arms crossed, then continued by saying, "I'll be merciful and let you do whatever. But your partners will be assigned." Dave scoffed and looked beside him at John, who seemed heartbroken. Mr. Scratch proceeded to write the pairs on the board, and the class got real quiet once they saw that one pair on the board.

Dave Strider and Karkat Vantas.

Dave looked over at Karkat a few rows over to see he was glaring right back at him. Ever since day one, they had both managed to pick at each other every single day in class. But they both knew that once Mr. Scratch set his mind to something, there was no convincing him otherwise.

"Get with your pairs and discuss your project." Mr. Scratch said before turning to his computer. John got with Karkat's friend, some blind troll girl, and Karkat reluctantly moved up to the empty desk next to Dave.

"Strider."  
"Vantas."

They just sat there and glared at each other for a minute, really loathing the entire situation. Until Dave finally spoke up. "Look, I really need to get an A on this project. And I'm not going to let you screw this up for me."

"Pffft. You think I'm going to screw this up? That's hilarious. I really need this grade, too." No insults so far, that was a good sign. "I know you hate this as much as I do, but we can't get it all done in school. So let's meet up after school today." Karkat scoffed and crossed his arms. "Fine. Do you have any bright ideas on what we should do the project on?" Dave pulled out his notebook and a pen. "Not in particular."

"Figures."

Dave glared at the troll through his shades and retorted, "I actually have a life, other things to worry about than school. What's your excuse for having such a low grade? Are you just stupid?" Strike one. Karkat rolled his eyes and changed the subject. "Why don't we do the four main elements, like back during the Middle Ages and stuff. Water, air, fire, and earth. We can do the chemical compound of each and stuff. Give a brief history on how each was used back in time." Dave wrote down the idea. It was actually pretty good, to his surprise. "Sure. Sounds simple enough." The bell rang, and silently, both boys were thankful. "Meet me out front when school is over," Karkat mumbled, just loud enough for Dave to hear. "Cool. See you then." Without another word, he was off.

Karkat stood there for a minute, thinking the situation over in his head. He came to the conclusion that he was totally and utterly fucked.

"Where the fuck are you taking me, Strider? We've been walking forever!"  
"Shut up. We're almost there."  
"I don't know if I want to be there. This entire area looks like a ghost town."  
"Just shut up. Seriously, shut the fuck up. Do you always complain this much?"  
"I'm not fucking complaining, I'm fucking STATING MY OPINION!"  
"No one gives a shit about your opinion."  
"OBVIOUSLY NOT, LOOK AROUND, THERE'S NO ONE FUCKING HERE."  
"You don't have to yell, no one is listening to you anyways." Strike two.

Karkat took a deep breath and tried not to knock his project partner in the face.

"Here it is." Dave walked up to huge, run down building and slid his bag off of his shoulder so he could produce a key from one of the pockets. Karkat watched as Dave undid the padlock and chains on the door, picked up his bag, and headed inside. Karkat was a little leary, but he followed. He was honestly surprised when he saw what all was inside.

It was a big, open area. About as big as the gym. He had a generator set up in the corner, with tons of wires sprouting from it, leading to all sorts of equipment, like a set of turntables and a TV and two computers, a few gaming systems, as well as a soda fountain and a popcorn machine. There were four beanbag chairs lying around, a shit ton of blankets and pillows, as well as a ton of magazines and a long workbench with two chairs pulled up to it.

Karkat stared in awe at all of it. "Jesus, Strider, are you fucking rich or something?"

"Yeah. I thought you knew that." Karkat shook his head and took a seat at the workbench, in front of one of the computers. Dave followed and pulled the other chair closer. "I actually looked some stuff up in the library..." Karkat stated as he pulled a few books out of his bag.

"Oh wow, all by yourself? Your daddy must be so proud of you."

Strike three.

Karkat sprang from his chair and tackled Dave to the ground, but Dave retaliated fast and fliped them over so he was on top. The world seemed a few shades brighter, and he knew when Karkat wasn't even fighting back, he was just staring at him.

He wasn't wearing his shades.

"Y... Your eyes..." Dave managed to tear his gaze away from Karkat to search for his shades, which he found lying about a foot away. He got off of Karkat and retrieved them, which allowed Karkat to push himself up on his shoulders. "Dave, your-"

"I know. I fucking know, alright? So just shut the fuck up." He had his back turned to Karkat, holding the shattered shades in his hand. He had those shades for over four years, and now they were ruined. He threw them to the ground and buried his face in his arm.

Karkat crawled over beside Dave. Softly, his voice came out. "...Dave, it's alright." Dave's came back muffled. "No, it's not. It's not fucking alright. It's never been alright, it'll never be alright." He looked up at Karkat. "I'm a fucking freak. Look at me, this isn't normal for humans. I'm just a fucking disaster." He buried his face back into his knees, cool facade shattered along with his shades.

"Yes, it is alright." Karkat put an awkward arm around him. "I'm a mutant troll. The lowest of low. You know how trolls have different color blood? I have human red blood. And my teeth aren't sharp like a troll's. They're rounded like a human's. I'm a freak, too. Come on, it's fine. I won't tell anyone." He gathered Dave's shades up. "I have a friend who can fix these for you." Dave looked up at Karkat, obviously rather confused. "Why are you being so chill to me?" Karkat had to think for a minute, but the answer came out smoothly.

"Because we obviously have a lot more in common than we thought."

A week passed, and the two boys were nearly inseparable. The project was due in just two days, and the only thing left that had to be done was adding the finishing touches to their project. Dave was waiting right out front, as usual, freshly repaired shades pushed up his nose when Karkat walked out with Terezi. The two were obviously arguing about something, but they hushed once they saw Dave. "Hey, coolkid." Terezi greeted happily. Dave nodded to her. "Sup."

"Alright, well, we have to go now. Later, Terezi." Karkat said quickly before grabbing Dave's arm and pulling him along. Terezi just snickered and waved the boys off. "Bye, Karkles! Bye, coolkid!" The two walked on for a while, away from the school, and Karkat was still holding onto his partner. "You know you can let go anytime now."

"Oh, s-sorry." Karkat quickly dropped his wrist and shoved both of his hands in his pockets. "Man, what's up with you today? You aren't acting like Karkat."  
"It's nothing."  
"Bullshit. Tell me what's up."  
"It's... It's just that. Well. Terezi wanted to know... if you had uh. A girlfriend or. Something." Dave shook his head. "Nope. No girlfriend or something. I'm a completely free stallion. And I don't want to hurt her feelings or anything, but tell her she isn't my type."  
"...What, you mean a troll?"  
"Nah, I wouldn't mind dating a troll."  
"So, blind?"  
"Dude. I'm gay."  
"...What's that?"

Dave stopped in his tracks, just a few steps in front of the warehouse door. "What's what?"

"Gay. What's that mean?"

Dave just kind of stared at Karkat in disbelief. "You know. When a guy only dates guys, or a girl only dates girls. Gay. Homosexual."

"Humans have a name for that?" Dave unlocked the door and headed inside with Karkat right on his tail. "Yeah. We do." Dave tossed his bag next to the bench, as well as Karkat, and they took their respected seats. "What about you, Vantas?" A light red blush crossed his cheeks, which made Dave smirk a bit. "None of your business, Strider!"

"Come on, we've traded our big secrets, and you're not even going to tell me who you would prefer to make out with?" Dave brought his chair a little closer and rested his hand on Karkat's thigh. "That's a load of bull." Karkat scooted away a bit and huffed. "I prefer the company of males. Now can we please finish this project?" Dave shrugged. "Sure. Just let me put some more gas in the generator."

While he got up and did that, Karkat looked at their project. They had a sample of each element; water, air, earth, and fire. But the fire wasn't lit. That was one of the things they had to finish today, decide on how long the fire should be lit and what materials to use to make it.

"Fuck!" Karkat quickly turned around to see that Dave had spilled gasoline all over the place. "Fucking cheap-ass gas cans... Lids not screwed on right..." he mumbled to himself as he went to one of the supply closets to get some paper towels to absorb it up with. Only to see that he was out. "Shit. This place is going to reek for months." With a sigh, he settled on a towel and wiped up the ever-increasing surface area of the gas spill. Karkat scrunched up his nose at the smell and turned back to the project. Okay, so they wouldn't light the fire today.

Dave opened up a few windows, then tossed the soaked towel to the far end of the room. Karkat got up and moved over towards the soda fountain to get himself a drink. "Alright, so fuck the generator. What else do we need to do, Karkat?"

"Decide on what we want to do for the fire display. We could use paper so it won't burn for too long, but it may be too short. I dunno. We should try lighting some and timing it to see how long it burns before it goes out." He turned his back to Dave so he could fill his cup with ice and lemonade.

Thinking back, that one moment was one that he really regretted.

He turned back to look at Dave to see that he already had a match struck and burning.

"DAVE, NO! PUT THAT OUT, YOU IDIOT! YOU JUST SPILLED GAS ALL OVER THE FUCKING PLACE!"  
"Fine, fine. Calm down, sheesh." He threw the match to the ground and was about to step on it, but fire rose up all around him.

"DAVE!" Karkat dropped everything and ran over to him, just in time to where the flames died down around him and spread further along the warehouse. He was panicking, Dave was screaming, he was absolutely frozen until he saw flames eating at Dave's leg. He grabbed the blanket closest to him and attacked the flames on Dave's leg, completely smothering them.  
Smoke started to fill the room faster than it could get out of the few open windows. He looked around and saw nothing but the bright orange licks of flames eating everything in sight. Dave's coughing brought Karkat back and he looked down at his leg, immediately regretting it. It was horrible.

"Dave! Dave, look at me!" Karkat snatched his shades from his face to see Dave's red eyes once more, until they shut closed and a raspy cough came out. He slung Dave's slightly singed arm around his shoulders, pulled Dave's shirt over his nose and mouth, then started to head towards the door. The building was falling apart. God knows how many years of dryrot and fallen clumps of insulation helped ignite the fire further. He couldn't see past the smoke, but he could feel the building shake. He got close enough to see the door, but the victory was short-lived when a rafter fell in front of it. The window. He had to get to the window. He turned around and suddenly felt Dave get a lot heavier, and he was pulled away from him, out of his grasp entirely. He looked down and saw that a rafter had fallen. Right across Dave's chest.

"DAVE!" Karkat dropped to his hands and knees and tried to lift the rafter, just barely with success, and pushed it off of Dave. He was just lying there, eyes closed and chest rising and falling quickly. "DAVE, WAKE UP!" Karkat leaned over him and shook his shoulder. His eyes opened slightly, and he peered up at Karkat. "Dave, oh my God. We're almost out, come on."

The troll carefully pulled Dave up, threw him over his shoulder, and headed towards the window. He pushed Dave out the window and was about to get out himself, but everything started to cave.

He could just barely make out Dave coughing and rasping his name out, and he saw flashing lights before his vision was obscured.

Something was pushing down on him, he couldn't breathe, and he blacked out.

Dave woke with a jolt in a dark room. He couldn't see much, but he could hear a heart monitor. Two, actually. He looked around and saw a lump in the bed next to him. On the other side, Bro was propped up in a chair with his arms crossed over his chest, head hanging low. He must have been asleep. Shit, what time was it, anyways?

He tried to speak, but only ended up coughing. "Dave?" Bro moved to the bedside, and he nodded. "Dave, hey. I was wondering when you were gonna wake up." Dave looked over at the bed next to him and managed to rasp out, "Who...?"

"It's that guy you've been talking about all week. I think his name was Karkat?"

Alarms went off in your head, and you jerk yourself up in a panic. "Whoa, hey, slow down there." Bro pushed him back into the bed, and he winced as he leaned back. "He's alright. Got a lot more burns than you, but he's a troll. All that smoke in his system didn't get to him like it got to you."

"...Was my... Fault."  
"Dave, it doesn't matter who's fault it was. Look, don't worry about all that stuff in there, alright? We can get you new st-"  
"No," he cut Bro off. You held your hand out to the bottle of water, and he helped you clear the raspiness out of your throat. "He's hurt... It was my fault."

"Dave, he saved your ass. He risked his life to save you, and he almost didn't make it out. The firefighters had no idea anyone else was in there, he could have died. But you told them he was in there. So you saved his life. Don't you remember that?"

"No... Let me see him." Bro nodded and helped Dave stand on his janky leg that was wrapped. His arms were both bad, too. And there was a little strip along his left side that was bandaged, and his chest was wrapped from where they did surgery, but that was the worst of it. He made it over to Karkat's bed and sat on the chair that was next to it. Bro turned on the lamp, and he was right. Karkat was far much worse for wear than Dave was. He had bandages on the side of his face up to his ear, a few down his neck and shoulder, several across his abdomen, and around his arms and legs. Dave raised a hand and ran it through Karkat's hair. He groaned and slowly opened his eyes, peering up at the blonde.

"Dave? You look like shit." He couldn't help but to grin, and he held onto Karkat's hand.

"Likewise."  
"I'm sorry I couldn't get you out faster, I-"  
"Shut your whore mouth. You almost died for me." And before Karkat could reply, Dave kissed him a bit roughly, and he kissed back. "I knew it," Bro commented, and the two raised their middle fingers to him.

That was all that really needed to be said.


End file.
